Minjee Lee has felt the glory and agonies of golf greater than most lately.
She gained her first main match on the 2021 Evian Championship, a come-from-behind playoff victory, and adopted it lower than a yr later with a report win on the 2022 US Girls’s Open. Then got here a tie for forty third when defending her Evian title, worries about exhaustion and some irritating finishes within the first two majors this yr.
Lee, a 27-year-old Australian, is now ranked sixth on the planet after reaching No. 2 final summer season and might want to conquer Pebble Seashore Golf Hyperlinks – the well-known golf course on the California coast – if she desires to defend her Open title . The match begins on Thursday.
In a spring interview at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park, Lee mentioned her masterful iron recreation, the hazards of Pebble Seashore, the evolution of the ladies’s recreation, and why it is so onerous to win a significant as soon as, not to mention twice.
This interview has been edited for size and readability.
You have not missed a single lower at a significant since 2019.
I did not even know.
How a lot of that represents an development of your athletic skill relative to your mindset?
You attempt to get slightly higher daily. So for me, for my development and the truth that I did not miss an element in that interval, I really feel like I put plenty of hours and energy into my recreation and bought higher daily. It simply reveals my consistency over X time.
How did profitable the Evian Championship in 2021 form the next years?
It was a little bit of a reduction as a result of there was plenty of speak, “When is she going to win her first main?” I heard many issues, however they have been by no means in my face. They have been at all times in passing or social media or a bunch of stuff right here and there. So it was type of a reduction, a monkey off my again. I knew I had it in me, but it surely lastly occurred – it is actually, actually onerous to truly get a win in a significant.
You are at all times engaged on profitable majors, and your objectives are very particular, so for that to be my first additionally led into my subsequent yr.
And as you realized with Evian final yr, it is onerous to defend a championship.
Oh yeah. It is rather troublesome.
Going into Pebble Seashore, how do you method defending a Main?
The toughest half is doing all of your regular factor. Once you’re defending, you are normally pulled in plenty of totally different instructions: media, your follow rounds, you set in plenty of work as a result of it is a new venue, and you must begin all of your preparation from scratch.
It isn’t like Evian, the place I already knew the golf course and performed it for years. [This year], will probably be slightly totally different. The US Open has at all times meant quite a bit to me and profitable was a dream come true for me. I do not know the way it will really feel to enter there because the defending champion.
The wind might be an element at Pebble Seashore. You grew up in Australia and handled the wind. You reside in Texas and you must cope with the wind. Does it really feel like a bonus this yr?
I prefer to play within the wind – I like a tricky wave check. I simply really feel like you may actually use your creativity when the wind blows. Low pictures are key, but it surely’s not at all times simply the low pictures. Are you going to make use of the wind? Will you battle the wind? There are only a lot of various methods you may play within the wind. I prefer it higher when it is tougher, and since it actually makes a distinction who’s an excellent ball striker and who’s not so good, it actually separates the sphere. I’ve at all times performed earlier than the wind, so it does not actually really feel any totally different to me.
There aren’t many higher iron gamers on the planet. Do you continue to end up specializing in irons if you follow and put together, or are you able to afford to spend extra time doing different issues?
I by no means actually felt like I used to be higher in that regard till I noticed the statistic. Yeah proper, my stats have been higher than the lads, however I’ve by no means actually labored on my irons particularly – for instance, I’ve at all times labored on my approach or how I transfer a sure manner for a sure shot. However final yr occurred to be higher than every other yr, and I am undecided what actually modified. It simply occurred. You simply work on one thing for therefore lengthy and in some unspecified time in the future it simply clicks. I am most likely not engaged on my swing that a lot proper now; I am engaged on different components of my recreation, however solely as a result of these different areas would profit me essentially the most.
You stated you do not take note of stats, however you set the Open scoring report final yr and earned the best payout in historical past ($1.8 million) for ladies’s golf. Do you consider these sorts of superlatives?
I really feel like I do not – not as a lot as I ought to. I ought to most likely have a look at it and suppose, “Oh, you probably did a extremely good job,” after which praise myself. I am simply doing my job and once I’m not on the golf course I am not excited about golf.
There is a second within the Netflix documentary collection “Full Swing” the place Brooks Koepka talks about how golf is a recreation the place, when it goes properly, you suppose you may by no means lose, and when it does not go properly, you suppose you by no means will discover the way in which again. This yr has not been a slide for you. The place are you on that continuum?
I had a off-season, as I at all times would in that interval, after which performed in opposition to Asia and did not have such good outcomes. I used to be like, I am simply going to remain dwelling for just a few extra weeks, and I missed three occasions and that occurred to be six weeks.
Time glided by so quick, and I used to be like, I have been going full throttle for eight years, I get to take that point to myself. So I did, and I really feel good. I really feel fairly refreshed. The primary week was Chevron – an enormous return for the primary week – and I am slowly working my manner again to enjoying rhythms.
You lately modified caddies. How did it have an effect on you throughout the course?
I really realized quite a bit about myself. Once you’re youthful you depend on your caddy quite a bit, and I believe I did for fairly a very long time simply because I used to be younger and did not actually know what I needed. Now I do know myself slightly higher and have matured quite a bit.
It simply appears like I do know what I need in a caddy and all the things I would like from my caddy. I do not want the reassurance; I do know what I’m doing. I simply want somebody who is aware of me properly, who might be an excellent companion on the golf course. We spend a lot time with them on the golf course, it is like you do not like that individual, it is simply not going to work.
That is the primary US Girls’s Open at Pebble Seashore, a spot that looms giant within the creativeness of golf. What is the larger milestone for ladies’s golf: that the Open is performed at Pebble Seashore, or that final yr’s British Open was at Muirfield, the place ladies could not be part of till 2017?
I am a bit blended in that regard. I’m very joyful and grateful that we have now been in a position to play at Muirfield and have entry to the golf course, and that we’re at Pebble for the primary time. I do know it takes plenty of work to maintain these championships there. It isn’t straightforward – nothing is straightforward, proper? – however I am type of bittersweet that it took so lengthy to get the ladies on these golf programs. I’m very grateful to the excursions and the US Golf Affiliation and all of our sponsors for actually pushing the ladies’s recreation and the LPGA to go to all these nice venues now, and I do know it’s going to solely get higher.
However I really feel prefer it took a very long time.
In February you stated certainly one of your objectives was to not be fully exhausted by the top of 2023. We have seen an increasing number of elite athletes speak about burnout, psychological sickness, despair and exhaustion. How a lot does that weigh on you as you strive to determine when to play?
I’ve at all times had a reasonably full yr. I’ve performed plenty of occasions, and that is what I actually needed to do. I needed to play. However now I need to play much less – I do not need to be so drained once I go to some actually essential occasions on the finish of the yr.
Now my priorities are totally different. I haven’t got to spend all my time enjoying each single occasion, attempting to maintain my card as a rookie. I am getting older so I need to maintain my physique, maintain my thoughts. That is what is going on to assist me give my greatest, so I believe that is why plenty of athletes at the moment are speaking about taking good care of your well-being, taking good care of your thoughts, the place you might be in your life. Simply being wholesome in and out is essential to me, and if nobody talks about it, nobody will actually learn about it, so you may’t get the appropriate assist if you want it.
Does profitable two majors assist you really feel liberated which you can take breaks and breaks – that perhaps there’s rather less to show?
Not likely. I’ve by no means thought of it that manner. Clearly I am hungry for extra: I need to win the opposite majors and I do not suppose that may ever change. And I have been near world No. 1 just a few instances, however did not fairly cross the road. So I nonetheless have quite a bit to point out. I nonetheless have plenty of wrestle in me. I nonetheless have plenty of drive.
You first performed if you have been about 10. Wanting again, do you want you had began sooner? Began later?
It was an excellent age for me. I swam and I performed golf. I did not know what I needed to do, and I simply tried plenty of issues: totally different sports activities, dance, music, all the things. I used to be fortunate that my dad and mom let me strive all the things. I simply discovered it in golf, and I actually loved training and seeing my associates on the golf course. I used to hit these delicate golf balls across the chipping inexperienced, and it was simply plain enjoyable. The best way I bought into it, I believe it was the appropriate manner.
Was golf your greatest sport?
Properly, I’ve fairly good hand-eye coordination, however I assume as a result of we have been actually a {golfing} household – my dad and mom and my brother and my grandparents, all of them liked to play golf, so we have been simply at all times there.
As a two-time Olympian, do you need to play in Paris subsequent yr?
That is fairly excessive on my record. I believe Paris might be a reasonably nice turnout. The Olympics are most likely the best honor you may have representing your nation, so I believe that is going to be certainly one of my larger objectives for subsequent yr.
However Pebble Seashore comes first. When do you begin enjoying it in your head?
I am not likely a lady who seems up the golf course beforehand. I’ve seen some holes on TV, however nothing an excessive amount of element.
I like seeing the monitor and actually visualizing it once I get there. I could not inform if I did it on the cardboard. I identical to to internalize it once I get there.
